Data Cloud Engineer

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a Data Cloud Engineer to support a long-term federal modernization program focused on enterprise cloud data solutions and mission-critical analytics within secure DoD environments. This a fully remote position, based out of Fort Meade, VA, and requires an active Secret security clearance*

The Data Cloud Engineer will play a key role in modernizing the program’s enterprise data infrastructure, building the foundation for secure and scalable data integration, and enabling reliable access to mission-critical data for advanced analytics, reporting, and operational decision-making across the DoD environment.

Responsibilities of the Data Cloud Engineer:

• Design, develop, and maintain production-grade ETL/ELT pipelines, with a strong emphasis on hands-on, high-performance PySpark development and Spark SQL optimization.
• Build and maintain scalable data pipelines using Azure Synapse Analytics, Databricks, AWS Glue, and related cloud technologies.
• Develop ingestion frameworks for structured and unstructured data, including relational databases, flat files, JSON, nested data, and REST APIs.
• Implement full and incremental data loads, including CDC, late-arriving records, and rerunnable pipeline architectures.
• Design and maintain cloud data lakes, warehouses, and analytics-ready datasets supporting enterprise reporting and operational decision-making.
• Implement data quality and governance controls, including schema validation/enforcement, schema drift, RBAC, lineage, cataloging, and credential management.
• Monitor and troubleshoot pipelines for performance, latency, failures, logging, alerting, and operational reliability.
• Support CI/CD, automated deployments, rollback strategies, and environment promotions across cloud data environments.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, cloud, DevOps, and software engineering teams to support RMF, STIG, FedRAMP, and DoD security requirements, data migrations, integrations, and Agile delivery.

Qualifications for the Data Cloud Engineer:

• 10+ years of recent experience designing and operating scalable, production-grade data pipelines using Azure Synapse and/or Databricks, w/ a Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Strong hands-on PySpark development experience is required, including demonstrated high-performance coding skills developing ETL pipelines; candidates without this experience will not be considered.
• Advanced experience with Spark SQL, Python, and SQL, including large-scale data transformation and optimization.
• Experience ingesting structured and unstructured data and implementing full/incremental loads, CDC, and rerunnable pipeline architectures.
• Strong experience with data quality, schema validation/enforcement, pipeline monitoring, logging, alerting, and troubleshooting.
• Experience implementing CI/CD practices and automated deployments for data pipelines and cloud environments.
• Experience with data governance, RBAC, and credential management in secure cloud environments.
• Hands-on experience with Azure and/or AWS data services, including Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Databricks, AWS Glue, Redshift, and S3. 
• Active Secret clearance*

Compensation for the Data Cloud Engineer:

• Salary: $125,000 - $140,000 *depending on experience*
• Comprehensive Benefits:  Medical, Dental, Vision, 401k Plan, PTO, Holidays, Sick Leave if required by law

This job opens for applications on 10/05. Applications for this job will be accepted for at least 30 days from the posting date.

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